Tried to clean my hard disk on Sunday, my good deed for my PC, and how does it repay me? Boot failure, hard disk totally buggered, like, the PC wouldn't even recognize that there was a disk there...Went into BIOS, tries to boot from CD but still no sign of the Drive when I said I wanted to repair Windows...

Got a spare one from my fiancée's dad today (meaning: re-installed everything aaargh!), and tried to set the old one as Slave, still no answer...

Word of warning, do not, ever, use a program called Diskeeper (defrag utility), it was the only thing working when our Drive died, so it's a big no no!

I don't understand how it messed up our disk so badly that it won't even be recognized anymore...

PCs, love them when they work, kick them when they don't...I guess I'm a bit on edge cause I'm waiting to hear back from an interview, they like to make people sweat me thinks.

Thanks for the link, and to answer your question: Nope and nope, it's deader than dead, like it never even existed!

Edit: looking through that site, I think I'll have to have a look a the jumper setting, and maybe see how it reacts as a slave drive...I might do that tomorrow, after installing all my apps back and put my backups on the PC (Thank **** I backup quite regularly!!!)

If the BIOS isn't detecting it, I'm very sorry -- everything I've read is doom and gloom for that scenario. Perhaps the HD was on its last legs and the constant disk access of Diskeeper was enough to send it to its grave.

If the BIOS isn't detecting it, I'm very sorry, but everything I've read is doom and gloom for that scenario. Perhaps the HD was on its last legs and the constant disk access of Diskeeper was enough to send it to its grave.

Good point, because it was a very old 40GB one, and it did get used almost every day for like the last 3 years or so...

I lost a very, very faithful 80GB hard disk to an angry defrag utility . It was about as tragic as computer related things can get o.o.

Sorry to hear it, but there was a plus for me - Christmas was coming around and I had some extra money hanging about and the Hard Drive dying was the catalyst for the building of a new computer . Perhaps good can still come of this?

Well, when Jimbo was installing a new DVD player in our computer, he accidentally (?) disconnected the power supply to the hard drive. We got no activity on the hard drive, to no surprise. After trying numerous things (including 'check all the connections to make sure all the wires are plugged in securely) suggested by Kitty and others on the chatbox, with no success, Jimbo sees the power supply hanging out in space and says "I wonder what this goes to?" He finds the slot on the hard drive, plugs it in, and voila, it works just fine.

Don't know if that would work for you, and it sounds like you've already replaced it, but now before we chuck anything, you can bet we'll be checking to make sure all the wires are plugged in.

From MST3K's spoof of "Hercules Unchained"--heard as Roman medic soldiers carry off an unconscious Greek Hercules on a 1950's Army green canvas stretcher: "Hi, we're IX-I-I. Did somebody dial IX-I-I?"

I had an external usb 2 hard drive with all my music, movies, and numerous mods die on me. Thankfully it had begun making grinding noises about a week prior to it dying, which gave me enough time to buy an internal hdd and transfer most of the files off it. It finally fried though while transferring the files, and I lost a few seasons of TV shows and movies. All the music lived though. I was just a little pissed off for a week.

Can't you use some professional data recovery people so you don't lose everything on the drive? I've heard that's possible, but haven't gone through that process myself

Are you sure the drive wouldn't have died anyway? I've been running Diskeeper in the background for years with no problems. If my HDD died I wouldn't blame Diskeeper. HDDs are a crap-shoot with regards to how long they'll last.

Well, when Jimbo was installing a new DVD player in our computer, he accidentally (?) disconnected the power supply to the hard drive. We got no activity on the hard drive, to no surprise. After trying numerous things (including 'check all the connections to make sure all the wires are plugged in securely) suggested by Kitty and others on the chatbox, with no success, Jimbo sees the power supply hanging out in space and says "I wonder what this goes to?" He finds the slot on the hard drive, plugs it in, and voila, it works just fine.

Don't know if that would work for you, and it sounds like you've already replaced it, but now before we chuck anything, you can bet we'll be checking to make sure all the wires are plugged in.

I still need to check how it does as a slave drive, but there's a lot going on here right now I don't really have the time...It's not getting chucked just yet though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deathdisco

Are you sure the drive wouldn't have died anyway? I've been running Diskeeper in the background for years with no problems. If my HDD died I wouldn't blame Diskeeper. HDDs are a crap-shoot with regards to how long they'll last.

I've been told by someone else as well that Diskeeper wasn't very safe though...But I think it was on its last legs anyways.

If it was your HHD controller that died and not a physical death (heads, cyclinder). Try looking on E-bay for same exact HHD and switch the controllers. This will be a lot cheaper than using a professional disc recovery service.

Not all those who wander are lost.-J.R.R. Tolkien

I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it but by it I see everything else - C.S. Lewis

If it was your HHD controller that died and not a physical death (heads, cyclinder). Try looking on E-bay for same exact HHD and switch the controllers. This will be a lot cheaper than using a professional disc recovery service.

umm... Well, on my laptop, whenever I insert the KotOR disk, there's a lot of clicking and grinding going on. But when I remove it, its as silent as a laptop can normally get. Does this hold symptoms of mechanical death?

umm... Well, on my laptop, whenever I insert the KotOR disk, there's a lot of clicking and grinding going on. But when I remove it, its as silent as a laptop can normally get. Does this hold symptoms of mechanical death?

It sounds like your CD-Rom spinning up. If your CD-Rom has always done this. Then I wouldn't worry. However if it was silent in the beginning then I would start looking for a replacement.

Not all those who wander are lost.-J.R.R. Tolkien

I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it but by it I see everything else - C.S. Lewis